On the surface it looks like a Ukrainian family idyll. Husband and wife, with dog and child playing in the green grass at the back of the house in the Zakarpattia region of western Ukraine. But behind the play and smiles there is pain and worry.
Father Vitalii has just returned home after two and a half years as a front-line soldier. His injuries are mostly on the inside, psychological trauma and there is a risk that he may be called up again.
Longing for her husband
– For more than two years, our family has lived in hell. No father at home, and we don’t know how it will be in the future either, says Khrystyna Huba, who longed for her husband.
Although the Huba family lives in rural western Ukraine many miles from the battle line, the Russian war of aggression has left a deep mark. Vitalii, for example, received only one week’s leave in his entire multi-year tenure away in Donbass. He became a stranger to his own child.
Was in a state of shock
The first time we visited the family in March 2022, Vitalii had just been mobilized. The wife Khrystyna was in a kind of shock state.
– My husband does not know how it will be tomorrow, he does not know where he will be sent tomorrow, none of us know. It’s terrible, she says.
Vitalii finds it difficult to describe how to cope with life as a soldier in the trenches. But the threat of dying was always there:
– We were exposed to constant shelling from artillery and drones. Shots from armored vehicles. That I managed only a minor injury is a miracle. But the war has had major consequences. I have lost many friends, the very best people you can imagine are dead. For my part, I’m glad to be home again.
Cemeteries are filled with victims
Many never come home again, all over Ukraine the cemeteries are filled with the victims of the war after these 1000 days of brutal Russian large-scale invasion. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been either killed or wounded. The Huba family has, in a sense, gotten off lightly, and Khrystyna is clinging to some kind of hope.
– All we can do is hope for the best. That this horror will end. And that everything will be fine and that peace will come to Ukraine.
Must win the war
Vitalii sees no other solution after 1000 days of large-scale war; Ukraine must win. Drive out the Russian occupiers. And he is ready to do his duty once more for his wounded homeland:
– It must be some time now so that I can heal. But if they call, I go in again. I did not hide during the first days of the war. And I’m not going to hide today, or in the future, he says.